NINETEEN SIXTY FOUR – PART 35
Bricks and the GWR
Michael L. Roach
In this instalment I am going to relate the little I know and have managed to glean about bricks and some of the bricks the Great Western Railway may have used over the years.
On 11th March (click here, scroll down) Tim Hughes posted a picture of a mystery object which I am fairly sure is a brick, because I used to have a similar one in the garden collected from a demolished building several decades ago. What happened to my brick I do not know, as I no longer have it.
If we use signal boxes as an example the GWR built most of their boxes either of timber or brick once they had decided on their standard range. The brick boxes often used two different bricks of contrasting colours. Around the brick and door openings and the plinth used Staffordshire blue bricks – these were a very heavy, strong, high crushing strength and low water absorption engineering brick also used on the brick rings of multi-arch viaducts. Staffordshire blue bricks were not blue but actually coloured brown created by firing the red clay at a high temperature. More on Wikipedia. However the GWR's rules were not invariable and sometimes a box would have a wholly wooden superstructure above operating-floor or window cill level sitting on a brick base; and sometimes the contrasting colour bricks were omitted.
In the days when I was specifying the use of such engineering bricks the ones that were normally purchased by the contractor came from the Baggeridge Brickworks in the West Midlands. The rest of a signal box was normally constructed with a red clay facing brick of good quality. When Broadway Station on the Gloucester Warwickshire Railway was being rebuilt in 2017-18 I think it was constructed as described above. From memory the red facing bricks came from the Carlton Main Brickworks east of Barnsley. Perhaps someone from the Glos-Warks can confirm this. The resulting station buildings look very authentic and pleasing to the eye.
Just occasionally the GWR did not use a red facing brick for most of the superstructure of a signal box but one of a different colour. The best example that I know was that at Heathfield Station on the Moretonhampstead Branch erected at the north end of the through platform in 1916 to control the junction where the Teign Valley line from Exeter joined the Moretonhampstead Branch. Heathfield Box used a yellow or cream-coloured brick with the bricks coming from a brick and tile works which was just over the fence to the west of the station. The works was established in 1850 by Frank Candy and pre-dated the arrival of the railway opened to passengers in 1866. On old maps the works went by various names including in 1887 “Great Western Potteries & Brick Works.” After Heathfield Box was demolished I collected a yellow brick from the site around 50 years ago and I think it was similar, or identical, to the one that Tim Hughes showed in his photograph. What confirms the fact that the brick came from Heathfield is that the unusually shaped frog (the depression in the middle) is identical to a Candy brick illustrated on the internet. Candy not only made bricks and tiles but also a huge range of other earthenware pipes, fittings and chimney pots etc.
There is a lot more about the firm at: www.potteryhistories.com/candyhistory.html
For the sake of completeness I must describe one more type of brick associated with the Great Western Railway and that is the “GWR Plastic.” These were very common in the Plymouth area in the 1960s, and when I was on construction sites they often turned up. They were a common brick of no great strength and broke easily with a single deft blow from a brick hammer when the brickie wanted a half brick. I think that the GWR Plastic bricks were made by Westbrick either at their works at Steer Point or at Pinhoe, Exeter, or possibly both works.
I have had one new unused Baggeridge engineering brick in my small collection for more than 40 years and the first thing to say about it is that it is very heavy and expensive. It weighs more than 3 kilograms which is far more than most bricks, and equivalent to three bags of sugar. The equivalent Class B Blue 65mm Solid Wirecut Engineering Brick now costs up to £1.44 each. I also have another solid engineering brick in my collection and it is cream coloured, just like a Candy, but this one did not come from the Candy Works at Heathfield. It travelled nearly 600 miles from the Douglas Brickworks at Dalry, near Ardrossan to Cornwall perhaps by sea being used as ship's ballast or a return load. This one also weighs just over 3 kilograms.
More at: www.douglashistory.co.uk
Despite the widespread use of concrete blocks in this country the manufacture of bricks is still big business. There are three large groups of brick making companies and a smaller one (Michelmersh). Yet there is still room for smaller companies with just one works. A good example is the Northcot Brick Company whose works is adjacent to the railway line at the site of the former Blockley Station on the Cotswold Line. This is a family-owned company proud to proclaim that they still use coal-fired kilns. The history of brick making is a fascinating subject and a good introduction to the subject is the Shire Album “Bricks and Brickmaking.” Although Cornwall is normally considered to be a stone county with few brickworks there is a book solely devoted to Cornish Brick Making. Cornwall was also home to the more unusual calcium silicate brick made of china clay waste. If you come across a demolished signal box it is suggested that you collect a sample brick because every brick has a story to tell. Between the railway station at Heathfield and the town of Kingsteignton to the south east lie extensive deposits of ball clay which have been mined for hundreds of years. Much is exported through the port of Teignmouth but some used to leave by rail from Heathfield Station. The 2025 edition of Baker's Rail Atlas (which is highly recommended) describes the present limit of track at Heathfield as “Heathfield Imerys (disused).”
Most of the attached photographs of Heathfield Station were taken between 7.30 and 8.00am on Monday 7 June 1965. I had left home about 6.30am and was on my way to Evercreech Junction on the Somerset & Dorset to photograph a rail-tour organised by the Warwickshire Railway Society hauled by 9F no. 92238. The last colour image shows the station some 11 years later when the station building was boarded up and the signal box had been demolished. It was probably on that visit that I collected a brick from the demolished Heathfield signal box.
RECOMMENDED READING: GWR Signalling Practice ISBN 978-1-916112-20-9
On 11th March (click here, scroll down) Tim Hughes posted a picture of a mystery object which I am fairly sure is a brick, because I used to have a similar one in the garden collected from a demolished building several decades ago. What happened to my brick I do not know, as I no longer have it.
If we use signal boxes as an example the GWR built most of their boxes either of timber or brick once they had decided on their standard range. The brick boxes often used two different bricks of contrasting colours. Around the brick and door openings and the plinth used Staffordshire blue bricks – these were a very heavy, strong, high crushing strength and low water absorption engineering brick also used on the brick rings of multi-arch viaducts. Staffordshire blue bricks were not blue but actually coloured brown created by firing the red clay at a high temperature. More on Wikipedia. However the GWR's rules were not invariable and sometimes a box would have a wholly wooden superstructure above operating-floor or window cill level sitting on a brick base; and sometimes the contrasting colour bricks were omitted.
In the days when I was specifying the use of such engineering bricks the ones that were normally purchased by the contractor came from the Baggeridge Brickworks in the West Midlands. The rest of a signal box was normally constructed with a red clay facing brick of good quality. When Broadway Station on the Gloucester Warwickshire Railway was being rebuilt in 2017-18 I think it was constructed as described above. From memory the red facing bricks came from the Carlton Main Brickworks east of Barnsley. Perhaps someone from the Glos-Warks can confirm this. The resulting station buildings look very authentic and pleasing to the eye.
Just occasionally the GWR did not use a red facing brick for most of the superstructure of a signal box but one of a different colour. The best example that I know was that at Heathfield Station on the Moretonhampstead Branch erected at the north end of the through platform in 1916 to control the junction where the Teign Valley line from Exeter joined the Moretonhampstead Branch. Heathfield Box used a yellow or cream-coloured brick with the bricks coming from a brick and tile works which was just over the fence to the west of the station. The works was established in 1850 by Frank Candy and pre-dated the arrival of the railway opened to passengers in 1866. On old maps the works went by various names including in 1887 “Great Western Potteries & Brick Works.” After Heathfield Box was demolished I collected a yellow brick from the site around 50 years ago and I think it was similar, or identical, to the one that Tim Hughes showed in his photograph. What confirms the fact that the brick came from Heathfield is that the unusually shaped frog (the depression in the middle) is identical to a Candy brick illustrated on the internet. Candy not only made bricks and tiles but also a huge range of other earthenware pipes, fittings and chimney pots etc.
There is a lot more about the firm at: www.potteryhistories.com/candyhistory.html
For the sake of completeness I must describe one more type of brick associated with the Great Western Railway and that is the “GWR Plastic.” These were very common in the Plymouth area in the 1960s, and when I was on construction sites they often turned up. They were a common brick of no great strength and broke easily with a single deft blow from a brick hammer when the brickie wanted a half brick. I think that the GWR Plastic bricks were made by Westbrick either at their works at Steer Point or at Pinhoe, Exeter, or possibly both works.
I have had one new unused Baggeridge engineering brick in my small collection for more than 40 years and the first thing to say about it is that it is very heavy and expensive. It weighs more than 3 kilograms which is far more than most bricks, and equivalent to three bags of sugar. The equivalent Class B Blue 65mm Solid Wirecut Engineering Brick now costs up to £1.44 each. I also have another solid engineering brick in my collection and it is cream coloured, just like a Candy, but this one did not come from the Candy Works at Heathfield. It travelled nearly 600 miles from the Douglas Brickworks at Dalry, near Ardrossan to Cornwall perhaps by sea being used as ship's ballast or a return load. This one also weighs just over 3 kilograms.
More at: www.douglashistory.co.uk
Despite the widespread use of concrete blocks in this country the manufacture of bricks is still big business. There are three large groups of brick making companies and a smaller one (Michelmersh). Yet there is still room for smaller companies with just one works. A good example is the Northcot Brick Company whose works is adjacent to the railway line at the site of the former Blockley Station on the Cotswold Line. This is a family-owned company proud to proclaim that they still use coal-fired kilns. The history of brick making is a fascinating subject and a good introduction to the subject is the Shire Album “Bricks and Brickmaking.” Although Cornwall is normally considered to be a stone county with few brickworks there is a book solely devoted to Cornish Brick Making. Cornwall was also home to the more unusual calcium silicate brick made of china clay waste. If you come across a demolished signal box it is suggested that you collect a sample brick because every brick has a story to tell. Between the railway station at Heathfield and the town of Kingsteignton to the south east lie extensive deposits of ball clay which have been mined for hundreds of years. Much is exported through the port of Teignmouth but some used to leave by rail from Heathfield Station. The 2025 edition of Baker's Rail Atlas (which is highly recommended) describes the present limit of track at Heathfield as “Heathfield Imerys (disused).”
Most of the attached photographs of Heathfield Station were taken between 7.30 and 8.00am on Monday 7 June 1965. I had left home about 6.30am and was on my way to Evercreech Junction on the Somerset & Dorset to photograph a rail-tour organised by the Warwickshire Railway Society hauled by 9F no. 92238. The last colour image shows the station some 11 years later when the station building was boarded up and the signal box had been demolished. It was probably on that visit that I collected a brick from the demolished Heathfield signal box.
RECOMMENDED READING: GWR Signalling Practice ISBN 978-1-916112-20-9
Heathfield looking south-east towards Newton Abbot 4 miles away showing the junction pointwork in the foreground. Although the passenger trains had been withdrawn more than 6 years earlier the station was still fully signalled. The stone arch bridge in the distance carried the single carriageway A38 trunk road. Copyright Michael L. Roach.
The north end of the 1916 GWR signal box. Copyright Michael L. Roach.
A ¾ view of the box. It looks to me as though Staffordshire engineering bricks were not used except perhaps for the coping of the wall around the coal bin. Copyright Michael L. Roach.
A full frontal view of the box and what surprised me was just how much variation there was in the colour of the Candy bricks used to build the box. In the foreground are some of the earthenware drainage products made by the firm. Copyright Michael L. Roach.
Looking north at Heathfield on 26 September 1976. The signals and box have gone but the left hand track is still in use. In the yard on this date were open trucks loaded with ball clay destined for Wrexham in North Wales. Copyright Michael L. Roach.
Tim's 'mystery object' which inspired this article. Copyright Tim Hughes.
Many thanks, Mike. An in-depth and interesting answer to Tim's question.
For more of Michaels articles, click here.
For more of Michaels articles, click here.
St. Austell Sleeper
Jon Hird
57311 calls at St. Austell making the 2247 stop whilst working the Penzance - Paddington 'Night Riviera' sleeper service. The loco still on hire owing to GWR's lack of serviceable 57/6 locomotives. 19.03.2025, copyright Jon Hird.
Happy days at Patchway
Phil 'Shattered' Smith
43071 awaits to depart Patchway station, the driver looking pretty happy in his work. 2019, copyright Phil Smith.
Many thanks as always, Phil
Heritage Liveries at Burngullow
Jon Hird
GBRF's BR Green 69005 passes Burngullow on another route learning expedition to the west, whilst DB Cargo 66089, itself wearing what could now be considered a 'heritage' livery, waits to depart with a train of clay ex-Treviscoe. Both locomotives are powered by the same ubiquitous GM EMD710 power unit. 20.03.2025, copyright Jon Hird.
